The word “ontology” may put some people on
edge. The expression places us, so it seems at least, in the area of abstract,
metaphysical thought. Should Christians really concern themselves with
ontology? Isn’t the danger of looking at the world through an ontological lens
that we may lose sight of the particularities of the Christian faith: God’s
creation of the world, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, the particular ecclesia community, and Scripture itself? I
understand these fears, and I appreciate the word of caution as an important
one. Nonetheless, the objections do not make me abandon the search for an
ontology that is compatible with the Christian faith…I believe that the Great
Tradition of the church – most of the Christian ear until the late Middle Ages
– did have an ontology. The call for a purely “biblical” theology seems to me
terribly naïve. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we all work with a
particular ontology; unfortunately, usually the ontology of those who plead for
the abolition of ontology turns out to be the nominalist ontology of modernity
(20).

Upplagd av
Josef Bengtson

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Spot on:

"All understanding of reality involves a commitment, a venture of faith. No belief system can be faulted by the fact that it rests on unproved assumptions; what can and must be faulted is the blindness of its proponents to the fact that this is so." - Lesslie Newbigin